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The Friends of the Waite Arboretum Inc THE FRIENDS OF THE WAITE ARBORETUM INC. NEWSLETTER NO 71 THE FRIENDS OF THE WAITE ARBORETUM INC. NEWSLETTER NO. 71 Autumn 2012 Secretary Editor Mrs Norma Lee Mrs Jean Bird 8379 4237 8276 1439 SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The Vice-President, Beth Johnstone, opened the meetinG by welcoming all Friends present. She then called upon the Secretary, Norma Lee, to read the minutes of the sixteenth Annual General Meeting which were duly confirmed. PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL REPORT Since the President’s Annual Report was circulated with the notice of the AGM, it will not be repeated here. The Treasurer, Peter Nicholls, then presented his report. TREASURER’S ANNUAL REPORT 16th April 2012 Mr. Chairman, I present the audited Statement of Receipts and Payments for 2011, a copy of which was sent out with the Notice of the Annual General Meeting, to all current members. I trust you have all taken the opportunity to read it. In doinG so, I express my real sense of gratitude, and a very big thank you to all members and volunteers who have contributed Generously to the activities of The Friends of the Waite Arboretum Inc. during 2011. Everyone’s efforts have resulted in the generation of a surplus of $10,969.14 for 2011. I have orGanized the Annual Statement of Receipts and Payments into distinct groupings which reflect the activities of the members and volunteers and on the front paGe are summarized the receipts from these activities and the payments for the costs associated with them. On the second paGe the details of receipts and payments associated with each event are itemized. In contrast to the previous year, the Friends did not have any major events other than the TreeNet Symposium. Consequently our Receipts were much lower and also our overall costs, which amounted to $893.90, were lower. The TreeNet symposium was our most siGnificant effort this year and Beth Johnstone and all her assistants are to be thanked for the well organized handling of this event. THE FRIENDS OF THE WAITE ARBORETUM INC. NEWSLETTER NO. 71 2 We were deliGhted with the success that Les and Faye Loffler had during the TreeNet Symposium in selling their excellent wood carvings and their consequential support of the Friends. Sales of Pat HaGen jewellery and Beryl Martin Prints continue to be a valuable contributor to our efforts as well as the booked Groups who take tours of the Arboretum. Finally I thank all members who have remained loyal to The Friends for their contributions, which enable Dr Jennifer Gardner to continue to enhance the ambience of the Arboretum. A number of our members are also Garden volunteers and they are to be specially thanked for their continued work in the Gardens and the rehabilitation of the North West corner area of the Arboretum. Funds were committed during the year to enable purchase of a ride on mower unit and also to support the construction of a storage shed in that portion of the Arboretum. It is with mixed feelings that I announce my retirement as Treasurer as of this niGht as a result of serving my 10 years on the committee. In doing so, I am happy that there is a healthy cash balance available for the continued support of the activities of The Friends of the Waite Arboretum Inc over the next years. I wish my successor all the best. Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption of the Annual Statement of Receipts and Payments of the Friends of the Waite Arboretum for 2011. Peter B. Nicholls RED DOT NOTICE Dear valued member please note that if you have a RED DOT on the front of your latest newsletter, this is to alert you to the inclusion of a Reminder Notice of your overdue membership subscription and a Membership Renewal Form for 2012. Please send us your membership subscription as soon as possible, so that you will continue to receive your Newsletter, or advise us that you do not wish to renew your membership of the Friends of The Waite Arboretum. You may renew your membership by using EFTPOS. If you decide to do so, please use your name as the reference. Otherwise I am NOT able to identify you for recordinG your payment. Yours Peter Nicholls. Hon Treasurer FWA. The Vice-President then announced the following nominations for the new Committee: Beth Johnstone, Prof. Mark Tester, Norma Lee, Henry Krichauff, Eileen Harvey, Andrew Walters, Marilyn Gilbertson, Dr Jennifer Gardner (ex officio). As there were no further nominations those named were elected. This concluded the AGM and Beth then introduced the Guest Speaker, Dr Suzanne Miller, Director of the SA Museum Subsequent to the AGM, the new Committee met to elect the office Bearers – Henry Krichauff, (President), Beth Johnstone (Vice-President), Norma Lee (Secretary), Andrew Walters (Treasurer). Eileen Harvey was elected Editor with Mark Tester and Marilyn Gilbertson forminG the rest of the Committee. THE FRIENDS OF THE WAITE ARBORETUM INC. NEWSLETTER NO. 71 3 GUEST SPEAKER Our Guest speaker, Professor Suzanne Miller, Director of the SA Museum, was born in EdinburGh and studied Geology Honours at the University of St Andrews before completing her PhD in Marine Geology at Imperial College, London. She spent 12 years with the National Museum of Scotland, latterly as Keeper of Natural Sciences. She was Honorary Research Fellow in Earth Sciences with the University of Aberdeen and Lecturer in Earth Sciences with the Open University. She is a Fellow of rhe Geological Society of London, a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a Member of the GeoloGical Society of Australia and was appointed Director of the South Australian Museum in 2007 Dr Miller, presented a most interesting illustrated talk on the subject of ‘Ancient Continents – A Dynamic Earth’. She began by explaining that the earth’s crust is a relatively thin layer on top of the very much thicker non-riGid mantle which surrounds the core. The crust is broken into a number of riGid plates which move aGainst each other in different directions and at different speeds (from 2 to 10cm per year). Molten material penetrates the crust at the plate boundaries. The nature of the rock formed varies accordinG to the type of movement (spreading, sliding or converGing) and whether the plate boundaries are beneath the ocean or on land. UsinG this and other information, earth scientists have determined how the plates have separated and joined and how they have miGrated over the surface of the earth from earliest times until the present. In Australia you can see rocks from 4,400 million years ago to the present and fossils from the earliest time when life appeared on earth. Dr Miller said that this was one of the reasons she was keen to come to the SA Museum. The fossil record in Australia stretches from the sinGle-celled fossil stromatolites of about 3,500 million ago throuGh the multi-celled animals of the Ediacaran period, the explosion of multi- celled marine animals in the Cambrian period, further diversification of marine creatures in the Ordovician period and then to the development of vascular plants on the fringes of continents in the Silurian period about 440 million years aGo. The type specimens of Baragwanathia longifolia, one of the earliest vascular plants, were found in Victoria. The first trees appeared in the Devonian period. Then in the Carboniferous period trees beGan to develop strong root systems that allowed them to grow larger and occupy drier land. The Giant club-mosses were Giving way to seed ferns. The fossils of a true fern, Zeilleria, look just like ferns you can see today. As the climate became drier in the Permian (299-251 million years aGo), plants such as conifers, cycads and Ginkgos evolved. Fossils of Glossopteris, a seed fern, have been found in India, South America, Australia, Africa, Madagascar and Antarctica, providing evidence that these continents were once amalGamated into a single supercontinent - Gondwana. The Triassic was a period of conifer forests with a fern understorey. In the Jurassic the climate was warmer and wetter and the land was covered with forests of tropical conifers, podocarps and cycads. Fossil evidence suGGests that Agathis jurassica was widespread. Coincidentally the Wollemi pines, Wollemia nobilis, whose foliage is very similar, were found only 100km from an Agathis jurassica location. The flowerinG plants evolved and spread in the Cretaceous period. Tropical and temperate forests covered larGe areas of Australia in the Tertiary period. In the Quaternary period (2.6 million years ago to the present), the climate was warmer and drier and hard-leaved plants such as eucalypts, spinifex, banksias and wattles were common and the landscape beGan to chanGe to what we know today. Dr Miller finished her presentation with a series of slides which showed the amazing journey of our wandering continents as they moved toGether then split apart and Australia moved from one side of the Globe to the other, from the equator almost to the south pole and back aGain. At the conclusion there were numerous questions from the floor until eventually Beth called a halt, thanked Dr Miller for a very entertaining and enliGhtening talk and presented her with a wooden tree THE FRIENDS OF THE WAITE ARBORETUM INC. NEWSLETTER NO. 71 4 sculpture made by Les Loffler usinG a hand scroll saw. The timber is azarole Crataegus azarolus from the Waite Arboretum. Les makes his exquisite silhouettes to match the species of timber he is carving. Eileen Harvey IN THE ARBORETUM FROM THE DIRECTOR Andrew Walters has settled in as Arboretum Grounds person and has been kept busy with summer watering of new plantings, weed control, pruninG, installing new donated seats and assisting the Tuesday morninG volunteers in the Urrbrae House Gardens.
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